If it is felt that the U.S. should "Move toward stabilization of U.S. population," why is "some growth necessary?"
It is frightening to realize the reluctance of our national leaders even to acknowledge that population growth in the U.S. is a problem.
F ) ( Them: not us ) A recent report ( PAI, 1996 ) "Why Population Matters, 1996" has the appearance of being a comprehensive review of the global population problem. The 55 pages include text, data, and a large number of well-presented graphs, covering facts and figures, economic development, environment, safety and health, as well as general principles and conclusions. The name of the group that prepared the report is Population Action International, which suggests a focus on the international aspects of the problems. This is borne out in the introduction:
The purpose here is to state the demographic case ... for U.S.
assistance to programs that help slow population growth in developing
countries.
Here is what appears to be a comprehensive report on world population problems, that makes little or no effort to present the population problem of the U.S. even though the U.S. is a major part of the international scene. By omission, the Report conveys the impression that there is no population problem in the U.S.
In the last section of the Report we read:
Slowing world population growth is important for all Americans.
An even more cogent observation, that is not in the Report, would be:
Because of our high per capita consumption of resources,
Slowing U.S. population growth is important for all the people of the
world.
It is so easy to say that the problem is them: not us.
G ) ( Diversion ) A recent scholarly report with the title "Getting it Right: A Policy Agenda for Local Population Activists" ( Jacobsen 1997 ) opens by identifying population growth as the ultimate problem:
Thus it is necessary to aim at containing population growth at the
local scale, if we are to create communities that are sustainable over
the long term.
The Report then seeks to divert attention away from "containing population growth" when it suggests that it is politically unproductive to say that "the root of all our problems is too many people." ( diversion ) The Report seeks to have local activists focus on the important problems
( other causes ) such as teen-age pregnancies, resource consumption, etc., and the Report advocates local programs of growth management.
"Growth management" and "smart growth" are attractive contemporary terms. They involve improved local and regional planning, which is good, but it is important to recognize the dilemma they present. Improved local and regional planning do an improved job of accomodating population growth and hence they encourage more local and regional population growth.
If we are going to "Get it Right," we can’t overlook the numbers.
H ) ( Diversion ) Boulder County, Colorado is in a scenic and attractive location. For decades, "civic groups" in the towns and cities of the County have been enormously successful in the promotion of population growth in the County. All sorts of public and private efforts have been made to attract new "clean" industries, laboratories, etc. to come to the County. The result has been totally predictable.
The concentration on recruiting "clean" industries implies that we will keep out the "dirty" industries. We all want the products made by "dirty" industries, but we don’t want the "dirty" people who work in those industries. This is economic discrimination. We are emphatic in our assertions that we want all ethnic and economic groups to be represented in our local population, but to achieve this, we need to have in our community all types of "clean" and "dirty" industries. With proud public pronouncements of our high minded ideals, we keep out the "dirty" industries and then wring our hands to lament the lack of ethnic and economic diversity in our community.
The schools in the City and County are crowded, the streets and highways are congested, the air is polluted, and farms are rapidly being destroyed by the construction of endless subdivisions. The houses that are being built on the former farmland are not for ordinary people but rather are for people at the middle and high end of the economic scale. Taxes have to rise to pay the costs of the growth, making it difficult for people on fixed incomes to continue to live in Boulder. Home prices and rents rise relentlessly, and consequently homelessness and helplessness seem to have increased. The high taxes and the high cost of housing fall hardest on low-income people, some of whom are third or fourth generation residents of the County. Yet the City and County are booming and it is claimed that we have a "vibrant healthy economy." The success of the promotions, and the resulting deterioration of many aspects of the community have prompted "slow growth" efforts on the part of citizens groups, and these efforts have resulted in conflict and hostility.
An outgrowth of this has been the Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative, ( BCHCI ) which has brought together volunteers from all parts of the County who have been trying to deal with the problems. All of the problems are predictable because they are caused by population growth. Yet the programs of the BCHCI are devoted to inspirational speakers ( non-believers ) who admonish the participants to work harder, and to develop better plans to manage ( and thus to accomodate ) growth. Speakers ( sustainers ) often use the word "sustainable" in the meetings, as though if we worked harder we could have a sustainable society.
A document titled "Principles of Sustainability" was prepared and circulated ( Draft Principles, 1996 ). This document has "Principles" that are vague:
1 ) It Has to Add Up - We recognize that every activity counts in
working toward sustainability and all our activities must add up to
sustainability.
It has "Principles" that are good:
4 ) Materials and Energy - To the maximum extent possible, activities
in Boulder County should, reduce, reuse, and recycle resources; avoid
production, purchase, and use of toxic materials; use energy as
efficiently as possible; seek to use local sources; and contribute to a
transition toward a renewable-based economy.
11 ) Cultural and Ethnic Diversity - We should respect and encourage
cultural, ethnic, and economic diversity, the social counterpart to
biological diversity.
Some "Principles" are far-sighted:
9 ) Power of Prevention - Boulder County programs should be
designed to prevent problems whenever possible, rather than focused
on correcting problems after they occur.
If we are to exercise the "Power of Prevention" of Principle 9 we must stop the population growth and this will prevent innumerable present problems from getting worse. But these "Principles of Sustainability" never deal with the population growth that has caused the problems that the "Principles" are trying to address and that the BCHCI is trying to solve. The "Draft Principles of Sustainability" make no mention of the fact that population growth is not sustainable. This document is not really "Principles of Sustainability," but rather it is "Principles That We Would Like to Sustain."
I) ( Diversion: other causes ) In a "Historical Note" appended at the close of an article on population, the "Editor" reported: ( Abernethy 1998 )
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, in a May 26, 1997 interview
with ABC explained forthcoming new regulations for national parks.
These included requirements for advance reservations, use of public
transportation within parks, and all private vehicles to be left in
parking lots at entrances. Secretary Babbitt denied that these
restrictions resulted from there being too many people using the parks.
THE PROBLEMS THE DIVERTERS ADDRESS
The problems addressed by the diverters are important. The education of women, the distribution of resources, economic and political justice and equity are all vitally important. The world is well served by those selfless people who work hard seeking solutions to these problems. Yet as we look here in the United States, and around the world, we can see that the sizes of populations are growing, and we can see places where the problems associated with population growth are so overwhelming as to make it practically impossible to find the resources necessary to address the vitally important issues of education of women, distribution of resources, justice, and equity.
OUR GREATEST NATIONAL NEED
The thing that is most urgently needed is the initiation of a broad national dialog on the problems of the size and growth of the U.S. population, and, in particular, in finding concensus on an optimum population size for the United States.
A RESPONSE TO THE DIVERTERS
The arguments of the "diverters" were pointedly rebuffed by the biologist E.O. Wilson who wrote:
The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its
presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct. To say,
as many [ diverters ] do, that the difficulties of nations are not due to
people but to poor ideology or land-use management is sophistic. (
Wilson 1995 )
BOULDING’S THREE THEOREMS ON POPULATION
In a foreward to a reprinting of the essay of Malthus, the eminent economist Kenneth Boulding addressed the population problem forthrightly by offering three theorems: ( Boulding 1971 )
FIRST THEOREM: "THE DISMAL THEOREM"
If the only ultimate check on the growth of population is misery, then
the population will grow until it is miserable enough to stop its
growth.
SECOND THEOREM: "THE UTTERLY DISMAL THEOREM"
This theorem states that any technical improvement can only relieve
misery for a while, for so long as misery is the only check on
population, the [technical] improvement will enable population to
grow, and will soon enable more people to live in misery than before.
The final result of [technical] improvements, therefore, is to increase
the equilibrium population which is to increase the sum total of human
misery.
THIRD THEOREM: "THE MODERATELY CHEERFUL FORM OF THE DISMAL THEOREM
Fortunately it is not too difficult to restate the Dismal Theorem in a
moderately cheerful form, which states that if something else, other
than misery and starvation, can be found which will keep a prosperous
population in check, the population does not have to grow until it is
miserable and starves, and it can be stably prosperous.
Boulding continued:
Until we know more, the Cheerful Theorem remains a question mark.
Misery we know will do the trick. This is the only sure-fire automatic
method of bring population to an equilibrium. Other things may do it.
Boulding did not try to marginalize the Malthusian message. He addressed the question with a candor and courage which seem to be largely lacking from much contemporary discussion of the population-related problems that are overwhelming us.
WHY CONTINUE THE GROWTH?
Instead of accepting the assertion of the non-believers that growth is both good and inevitable, we should instead focus on the question of why should we have more population growth. We should ask the non-believers this nicely framed challenge:
Can you think of any problem, on any scale, from microscopic to
global,
Whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way,
Aided, assisted, or advanced, by having larger populations
At the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?
Henry Kendall of the Union of Concerned Scientists said: ( Holloway 1992 )
People who take issue with control of population do not understand
that if it is not done in a graceful way, nature will do it in a brutal
fashion.
CONCLUSION
There seems to be a concerted effort, locally, nationally, and globally to marginalize the modern Malthusian message and to talk about sustainability, using terms and concepts that don’t offend anyone. This marginalization requires that we make no mention of the facts that at all levels,
a) Sustainability requires the cessation of population growth and of growth in the rate of consumption of resources, and that
b) The world’s worst population problem is right here in the U.S.
As the issue of sustainability becomes more prominent and critical, major efforts are being made to obfuscate and to draw attention away from the central fact that population growth cannot be sustained. It has been thus ever since Malthus published his essay:
It is revealing that many literary people in the nineteenth century were
also anti-Malthusians - revealing, because it demonstrates how deeply
Malthus’ message offended humanitarian values. "The voice of
objective reason," Keynes said of Malthus’ theory, "had been raised
against a deep instinct which the evolutionary struggle had been
implanting from the commencement of life..." That same voice spoke
against the religious command to "increase and multiply;" and, despite
Malthus’ protestations from 1803 on, his doctrine was also held by
socialists and other radical reformers to be an immovable obstacle to
any human action for social betterment. It was no wonder, then, that
nineteenth-century writers, characteristically thinking of themselves as
humanitarians, resisted the Malthusian propositions...
"Malthusianism" is still ritualistically denounced. ( Appleman, 1976 )
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-- Mark Jones http://www.geocities.com/~comparty